


Not quite right

by 3311



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 04:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5694772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3311/pseuds/3311
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronan's dreams give him a message for Noah.<br/>Implied Ronan/Noah.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not quite right

 

"Here" Ronan said, dropping the abomination into Adam's hands "Go give it to him"

"Why should I?! Are you even sure it's his?"

"Not at all, Parrish. I only want to give him this ridiculous, ugly thing for no conceivable fucking reason"

"Remind me, how did you get it again?" Adam narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "did you... did you steal it from him?!" Adam said in a hurried whisper

"Why would I steal  _that_ , all I want is to get rid of it!"

"So...” Adam said, making Ronan go dangerously sharp, Adam Parrish was not in the least intimidated by the hissy fit "Where did you find it?"

"I just found it” Ronan snarled

"Like you found Chainsaw?" Gansey asked, an eyebrow going up in regal skepticism.

"Yes. In fact, if you must know, exactly where I found Chainsaw"

"I thought Gansey was the one gifted at finding treasure, if one of these days you find Glendower under your bed, please do tell!"

“I’m not sure one could call this treasure, Parrish” Gansey looked pensive for a second "Is this a prank, are you trying to prank us?" a pause of realization "Ronan Lynch, you better not be trying to prank him!"

"You know what, Fuck you, both!" Ronan growled grabbing the impossible eyesore from Adam's hands.

He walked in long predatory strides across the well manicured lawn towards Professor Czerny.

Professor, it sounded completely ludicrous when applied to their Latin teacher. Particularly right now when the bastard was there, contentedly sitting under a tree, only pretending to read while letting minute after minute go by without even thinking of turning the page.

How old was he anyway? He didn't look older than 20, but he was a teacher so he must be at least 25 or even close to 30... He couldn't possibly be 30, could he? He looked just like any other student, one who had awkwardly borrowed his older brother's suit for an interview but wasn't used to its formal constrictions. Even when his suits were impeccably tailored and obviously expensive he never looked quite put together, Ronan could appreciate that.

Ronan didn't mind the way in which their new Latin professor went on about grammar, as if he was a bit confused by it all. He didn’t mind at all the way in which his eyes widened a bit in surprise every time he answered one of their questions, or helped them with a translation, and he would go as far as to say that he liked the way the rest of the school's faculty seemed perplexed by the young teacher.  Maybe it was only his youth; at the moment the next youngest faculty member was 42. Czerny probably wowed them with his google skills, maybe he could even plug in a computer to the printer without calling IT, that had to be more than enough to perplex the rest of the fossils.

Professor Czerny moved around campus almost like a ghost, unobtrusive and unassuming preferring to disappear to the library if he had no responsibilities to attend to. The students most inclined to romance attributed this to the Professor’s reserved, even melancholy nature. They Imagined Czerny as this gloomy, sorrowful figure. Perched in a library windowsill, reminiscing some lost love while he looked out of the window, shedding a tear or two.

After careful research, which Adam had called stalking, the middle Lynch brother had figured out the only reason Professor Czerny holed himself up in the quiet library was so he could listen to his ipod hours on end undisturbed, taking notes after each song for his youtube music channel. Ronan had found out about that only two weeks ago.

He had now spoiled finding Glendower for himself because it didn’t matter if they found him fresh as a cucumber in an underground cathedral with pots of gold and walls of ginger bread and an actual fairy manually pumping the old geezer’s heart and maybe baby dragons, it all would pale in comparison. He had no intention of ruining it for the others so this was his secret, he had many secrets, one more one less, it didn’t matter.

There he was, their soft spoken Latin professor (there was no way he was older than 22) wearing skinny jeans and band t-shirts and oversized sweaters the sleeves of which he kept pulling all the way down to cover his hands while he went off on 40 minute long rants about why some new album by a band Ronan had never heard of before was the best thing to ever rock this earth... NOT, and sang covers of odd songs about the forgotten corpses of murdered children, and girls who had drowned.

Maybe that was it, maybe Czerny was simply an eccentric rich kid of artistic temperament and low ambition spoiled enough to be set as a teacher through his parent's connections just to give him enough respectability. 

Perhaps... There were many things about Noah Czerny that made Ronan Lynch feel unsettled in various and wildly diverse ways, at least as far as Ronan Lynch could be unsettled by anything not trying to rip him apart in a very literal sense.

The first thing he had noticed was how Professor Czerny had made an excuse not to give them their weekly vocabulary quiz, - he had smiled sheepishly as he said he had made a mistake, he had brought last week’s instead, he would bring the proper one the next day -  and had avoided starting a new subject, - so sorry, he had said, there had been a small... emergency?... maybe... and anyway... he hadn't made a proper study plan, they would start next class instead- exactly on the days Adam had missed school.

Ronan had tried to convince Adam to miss their midterm only to see what Czerny would do. Adam, of course, refused.

Adam didn't miss class often, so maybe it was a coincidence, someone who often trailed off mid sentence; someone who was surely thinking about running home to download a new release from itunes probably didn't have stuff like quizzes and study plans very high on their priority list. However, the echo of Gansey’s voice reminded him, nothing was a coincidence.

The first thing that had made him  uneasy was the way in which Gansey's carefully curated public persona faltered when he talked to their new Latin Professor one on one. It was not unusual to see Gansey throw a spiel about Glendower at the first unsuspecting victim available. It was definitely odd that he talked to Czerny just as if he was one of them, with that Ronan didn’t mean as another student or a teenager, Czerny’s apparent stunted growth could easily cause that mistake, Ronan meant _one of them_ , but neither Gansey or Adam seemed to notice and Ronan had not called it out. He almost wished they could bring the maggot to school so she could witness how Richard Gansey the Third melted away in a second to give way to their Gansey, the one with the ugly glasses and a cardboard model of the town in the middle of his flat and the bathroom-kitchen. He would say "Fucked up or what" and she would reply "As always, you are completely right, Lynch" and he would feel slightly less disconcerted, but just as irritated.

The first thing that had haunted him was Chainsaw's little act of insurgence.

Chainsaw was a very well behaved bird, she could sit inside his bag all day without making a peep as long as Ronan fed her on time and he always did, but the first time he had taken her to Latin class (as well as the next, and the next, and the next) as soon as she had heard Czerny's feathery voice she had been impossible. She had jumped and flapped until she managed to slip through Ronan's fingers and freed herself from her fabric prison.

Czerny had just asked for a translation, the ugly baby bird, her beak and claws still noticeable off-scale to the rest of her body had jumped on Ronan's desk in absolute victory. She had cackled happily as if she could barely contain her delight, this fluffy specimen of a teacher was apparently the best thing she had witnessed in her short raven life, possibly even better than sausages for all the fuss she was making. Ronan felt offended and vaguely self-conscious.

Czerny had not missed a beat, the bastard had only smiled and said "That is absolutely correct, Miss Lynch! Now if one of you gentlemen would like to provide the English translation..." Ronan did, Chainsaw cackled adoringly and Adam and Gansey smirked at him, the perfect dicks!.

Chainsaw and now this...

Ronan tapped their teacher's shoulder harder than he had meant to, he was sure he could hear the murder squash song coming from the discreet earbuds.

 "Oh! Mr. Lynch, How can I help you?..." Professor Czerny mellow voice trailed off,

Ronan would normally find that sort of faded out sentences maddening, but coming from this piece of fluff it was somehow... familiar... he tried to remember if his mother had done that. She had not. He felt the urge to throw the teacher out a window. He decided he would at least try not to do it. Not from a high window if nothing else.

"We-" Ronan started, Adam and Gansey cleared their throats in perfect unison a few feet behind him

"We" Ronan repeated, a 'we' with three sharp underlines "believe you might have misplaced this…" He said with a level of politeness that always sounded defiant coming from him even when he didn’t mean it to; he let the ugly thing roll into Czerny's opened yet unread book.

"I don't think this is mi-" Professor Czerny cut off as he examined the object, maybe he had recognized it, maybe he was only shocked speechless by its ugliness. He wouldn’t be the first.

A glitter snow globe with a fat, fluffy stuffed raven wearing sun glasses and riding a hot pink skateboard, the word 'Radical' spelled with blinding neon green and pink letters on the base to match it, the words  _vos mos reperio a via_  in a perfectly sober black font on the other side. If you pushed the button under the base the raven's skateboard see-sawed mechanically from one side to another while the snow globe played a blink-182 song. The only blink-182 song Ronan had ever listened to, he vaguely wondered if the song was accurate, his whole childhood and early teens he had been surrounded by music more akin to The Dubliners and he did not much care for outdated skate punk bands.

This was, in Ronan's expert opinion, the most grotesque thing to ever come out of his dreams yet.

Since his father's death his dreams had become brutal, unpredictable things. Chainsaw had been given to him as a gift, and it was exactly in that type of dream where he had found the snow globe, as soon as he had touched it he knew, with the absolute clear certainty he only found in dreams that it belonged to Noah Czerny and that he had to give it to him.

Naturally, the first thing he had done the following morning was to throw it carelessly with the rest of his dream trinkets never to see the light of day, or the moon, or even a fading light bulb ever again, the thing was positively revolting under every type of lighting situation.

Joke was on him. Every night after dreaming the fucking cursed snow globe he had woken up in a sea of fucking fairy dust. The stuff was everywhere, in his bed, in his clothes, most likely in his lungs, and in parts of his anatomy that had no business sparkling like a disco ball under any circumstance. He spent hours in the shower every morning trying to get rid of it, and hours at night sweeping it off his floor and trying to keep Chainsaw from rolling and playing in tinker bell's crap. Now he knew with painstaking precision how many hours and how many cotton swabs it took to clean glitter from a baby bird's feathers, and someone would have to pay for it.

Ronan glared at Czerny suddenly resentful, but their Latin Professor was completely oblivious. " _You will find a way_ " he said softly as he translated the phrase in the globe, frowning and absentmindedly tracing his cheekbone with his fingers.

Czerny turned it over to complete his examination. He pushed the button. The song played and the fluffy raven skateboarded.

Everything stood still for a few seconds as the singer talked about making out with a girl, Ronan was now certain there was no way he had made up those lyrics, and then Noah Czerny laughed.

It was an airy, relieved laugh, the happiest sound Ronan had heard in months.

If Ronan had been able to blush at all he probably would have in that moment, but Ronan Lynch couldn't or wouldn't, so he stared which in him translated into a menacing glare.

"It's so cute!" Noah Czerny said clutching the snow globe to his chest at the same time Ronan Lynch spat "fucking bizarre"

"Lynch!" Gansey scolded mildly, the word "Language!" although silent was clearly heard by everyone.

"That is why I love it... Thanks!" Czerny said shamelessly, smiling at him like he smiled when he gave a 5/5 rating to an album.

Again, Ronan Lynch did not blush, instead he turned around and stalked away as he said "See you around, Czerny" and it sounded like a threat. Like he probably would push him out a window the next time he saw him.

"Oh! Yes, see you in class" Czerny said offhandedly, giving a small wave to Ronan's back

"Lynch!" Gansey called after him, giving an apologetic look to the professor as Adam said "Goodbye, Sir" with extra politeness trying to cover for his friend, but Noah Czerny didn't seem to catch Gansey's apology or listen to Adam's goodbye. As Adam walked away to catch up with his friends, Czerny was looking at the glitter sparkle in the sunlight, a boyish carefree smile on his face. 

He could be brave now, even if he was just as cowardly and avoidant as ever. Maybe more so, because in blurry yet insidious ways almost being killed by the person you most trusted was worse than being dead.

He would go and tell the women at 300 Fox Way what had happened, how he had been dead for 7 years and then suddenly he wasn't because Gansey had wasted his favor on him, but Gansey was here and maybe it was just plain madness and he would have to be institutionalized.

He would confide in them, tell them how his memories were a rubik's cube that was constantly shuffling. His flesh had just started to rot away in the forest when he had treated his mother to a piano concert to make up for her birthday schnapps, he hoped he hadn't dropped hungry maggots in the pretty concert hall. He remembered their rides on the pig, and extravagant trips with his sisters, and patting blue's hair, and music festivals, and asking Ronan if he could sleep with him when he was afraid.

Noah Czerny always flushed a pretty dusty pink when he remembered that, because Noah Czerny could blush and he did often. He did not remember why or how could he possibly be teaching Latin, he hadn't even been average at it when he had been a student, and there was a months old 911 call on his cell phone call log he didn't remember making, at the time Ronan Lynch was lying in a pool of his own blood.

Some days he thought he had to be completely insane; that day in the forest had finally caught up with him.

Some days he was certain he was not and it petrified him.

He knew he had loved Ronan Lynch but he couldn't have him because worm food can’t be your boyfriend.

He still loved Ronan Lynch but he couldn't have him because teachers that are 7 years older than you shouldn’t be your boyfriend.

He didn't know if he was supposed to move or if that would break the thin ice, and then he would fall and be nothing and see nothing and feel nothing and uselessly waste Gansey's sacrifice.

Noah didn't want that. For once, unambitious Noah Czerny wanted it all, and apparently the first piece of it all started with a glitter snow globe. Noah pushed the button again as the dusty pink returned to his cheeks.

He smiled, the lyrics of the song weren't quite right.

 


End file.
